Collisions a snapshot of growth

The number of collisions in Stockton spiked 10 percent at intersections with new red-light cameras - proof they work well. The city should get more.

Michael Fitzgerald

The number of collisions in Stockton spiked 10 percent at intersections with new red-light cameras - proof they work well. The city should get more.

That's the finding of the City Auditor's Office, which did a "performance audit" of - wait a minute. Collisions went up 10 percent at those intersections?

If you hate red-light cameras, which the city started trying in 2004, you want to know whether they will be spreading. Based on this report, they probably will.

Because, while collisions are up, collisions caused by red-light running are down 9 percent since the 13 red light cameras went online, the report says.

Plus the gnarly $349.50 tickets earned about $1 million in fiscal 2007. While Redflex, the robo-makers, got most of it, the city still raked in $183,078.

That's enough to pay for the cop that handles the program, but not enough to vindicate critics who say robo-cams are all about the money.

The other kvetch of robo-cam critics, that cities jigger yellow lights to make violations more likely, again to make money, does not appear to apply.

The law sets a 3.5-second minimum of yellow plus "all-red" time (all red is the time after a yellow turns red, when all intersection lights stay red, before somebody gets the green). The city gives a generous 5 seconds, four yellow, one all-red.

So, if you get a robo-ticket it is because you blew the red light, not because the tricky traffic engineers cooked the yellow.

The report surmises that the 10 percent bounce in collisions at robo-sections is due to Stockton's rapid growth.

That's probably true. Stockton's population increased 9.5 percent in the 2004-07 robo-period. There are now 45,000 cars a day on the northern grid, March Lane to Hammer Lane. You've seen how some of those bozos drive.

Plus, the severity of injuries has reduced, evidently thanks to those cameras.

There's a part of me that wants to pull those authoritarian eyes down like that statue of Saddam in Baghdad after the liberation of Iraq. But if they're reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries, all the while playing fair, the devils should get their due.

Currently, traffic engineers reckon drive-time from downtown to Hammer Lane is 17 to 22 minutes. During peak times, the worst delays in the city are eight to 12 minutes. Residents of Los Angeles would think us insane if we complained.

But this easy motoring will not last at that growth rate. Neither will other qualities of life.

There is one other thing about robo-cams to like: the merciless droids don't let cops skate. I know. A deputy sheriff called me, irate that he was issued a citation. He had no real defense; getting a ticket just seemed out of the natural order to him. Welcome to the brave new world, officer.